Breaking Bad's Best Episode Director Was A Last Minute Decision
"Breaking Bad" is one of the best television shows ever made — that's it, that's the tweet (never post), as the saying goes.
Across 62 episodes following cancer-afflicted chemistry teacher turned meth kingpin Walter White/Heisenberg (Bryan Cranston), the show never lost its touch. The chapters that made up the series are just as strong as their sum. Normally on a long-running show, there'll be debate over what the best episode is. Not on "Breaking Bad" though — the consensus pick for best is season 5, episode 14 "Ozymandias," where Walter White's world at last comes tumbling down. (The title references the Percy Bysshe Shelley poem about an arrogant king now buried by the sands of time.)
There's underrated "Breaking Bad" episodes people will champion. Some might also cite bottle episode character study "Fly" (directed by future "Ozymandias" director Rian Johnson) or season 4 finale "Face-Off" as close seconds. But even fans of those episodes will often concede "Ozymandias" as towering work. For as much stock as you can put in IMDB rankings, "Ozymandias" has maintained a perfect 10/10 score for over a decade and remains the highest rated TV episode on the site.
The Ringer (which agrees on which "Breaking Bad" episode is the best) commemorated the fifth anniversary of "Ozymandias" in 2018 with an oral history of the episode. During his interview, Johnson said the offer to direct came "out of the blue" — him getting the job was a request from the episode's writer, Moira Walley-Beckett.
Moira Walley-Beckett and Rian Johnson were Breaking Bad's A-Team
"Fly" was co-written by Walley-Beckett and her fellow writer Sam Catlin. For the fifth season of "Breaking Bad," Johnson came back twice to direct: "Fifty-One" (written by Catlin), and then "Ozymandias."
Some background on how "Breaking Bad" episodes were written; the writers room mapped out the season's episodes, act by act, together. Once that "breaking" process was complete, they were each assigned to write episode scripts. Walley-Beckett got "Ozymandias" on luck of the draw, but she definitely earned the honor with the work she produced. Indeed, titling the episode after the Shelley poem was her idea. (For more insights into how the "Breaking Bad" writers operated, read my oral history of the final season for /Film here.)
For Walley-Beckett's final episode on the show, she wanted Johnson to direct. "I think [series creator Vince Gilligan] had told Moira that she could choose a director to work with and we had a really good experience on 'Fly,' and once again I lucked out," Johnson told the Ringer. "He's such a great director, such a great partner in crime — we call each other the Wonder Twins," Walley-Beckett added.
Speaking to Vulture shortly after "Ozymandias" aired, Johnson had similar praise for his "Wonder Twin": "This is really Moira's episode. We worked together every single step of the way, shoulder to shoulder on set. Every nuance of every performance. It wasn't like just being handed this script with a 'Good luck, kid.'"
"Ozymandias" was not first conceived for Moira Walley-Beckett and Rian Johnson to bring it to life. Sometimes, though, the mark of a great talent is being able to adapt to what you're given (like how Johnson took advantage of some improv from an infant actor during the "Ozymandias" shoot). Even with his illustrious film career, "Ozymandias" cements Johnson as a directing "King of Kings."